Artistically known as Elissar, Mary Abu (Abou) Mrad (الراقصة اليسار) was talented in belly dancing since a very young age and challenged her entourage and family to pursue her dream. Since then, Elissar believed that dancing is a message of love transmitted through body language. She is famously known as Lebanese ‘Queen Of Dance.’

Born in a modest family, Elissar spent some lonely years until, after 8 years, her mother gave birth to “Margareta” and then to “Isabel”. Despite her passion and determination to practice belly dancing as a profession, Elissar finished her school studies and started nursing studies. A while after that, Elissar persuaded her parents with her decision and got their blessing to officially start her dancing career.

She started by joining “Studio El Fan” offices with the help of Mr. Charbel Doumit who was working with Mr. Simon El Asmar. Being impressed by her dancing, Mr. Simon El Asmar offered her a TV appearance in his show “Tanneh W Ranneh”. It was a remarkable start in Elissar’s career; the honorary invitees to that episode were the legendary ‘Sabah’ and the late ‘Zarif El Arab Abed El Rahman Khoja’. Her dancing talent was well appreciated that ‘Sabah’ suggested the artistic name ‘Arij’ to Elissar; however, this young dancer admired the story of ‘Elissar the Queen of Kartage’ and chose her artistic name accordingly.

Elissar knew she had serious work to do to develop her talent, so she started with stretching classes and then attended different courses. She studied Oriental and Belly Dancing with Ms. Nadira Assaf, Mr. Sami El Hajj and Ms. Hélène Cremona, and Classical Ballet with Ms. Georgette Gebara.

Elissar danced in parties and weddings in Arab and European countries of which we name the United Arab Emirates, Bahrein, Kuweit, Qatar, India, Paris, London, Monaco, Egypt and other African countries. She performed in many restaurants in Lebanon and sometimes more than a restaurant in one night. She is now dancing in the restaurant ‘Nahawand’ in Dbayeh.

Elissar has put a lot of effort in the past few years and the results are now visible and worth the attempt. She succeeded in producing her first album under the name of ‘Elissar’ alongside a music video for the song ‘Give Me More’ which is an Oriental/Occidental fusion produced by ‘Nahawand’.